Anti bullying (including cyber) legislation drafted

The Italian
Chamber of Deputies has approved a draft legislation to prevent bullying and
cyber bullying. It has now to be approved by the Senate.

Its approval
comes days after Italy's privacy tsar ruled that an Italian court had not
considered the online publication of a sex tape as an illegal breach of
privacy. The woman, Tiziana Cantone, had moved from city to city and changed
her name in order to escape the humiliation before killing herself.

It wasn't the
first case of young people killing themselves after being mocked online.

The
non-profit organization Telefono Azzurro said it received calls about bullying,
including cyber-bullying, on a daily basis in the last school year. The
majority of incidents involved young teens aged between 11 and 14.

Typical
behaviour includes threatening or offensive messages, but more sinister acts
like online stalking and digital identity thefts are not uncommon. Istat, the
national statistics agency, declares that 5.9 percent of all youngsters are
subject to some form of cyberbullying.

Cyber bullies
and online stalkers could in future face between one to six years in prison.
The owners of a website, including blogs and social media accounts, under the
proposed law, will have 48 hours to remove offensive contents before legal
intervention from Italy's Garante della privacy, the official institution in
charge of protecting personal data.

There will be
a fine for site moderators who fail to remove the offending contents, while
those found guilty of cyber stalking or bullying, for example the posting of offensive contents, such as photos
or videos, could be jailed for up to six years.

The draft
bill was approved with 242 votes in favour, 73 against and 48 abstentions. The
majority of the votes against came from the Five Star Movement which criticized
amendments to the previous draft bill as a step in the direction of censorship.
The argument was that anyone could demand the removal of contents they deem
"mocking" or "insulting", without the need for an objective
third party judgement.

The draft bill foresees also a prevention plan and
education in schools with the collaboration of teachers. In every school there
will be a person in charge of anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying initiatives.
The headmaster will be responsible for informing the families of the students
involved in bullying, and if necessary suggest measures for assisting the
victims and the re-education of the bullies involved.